Price of new Potter book a mystery

By Peter MunroJune 18 2003

Winter hot spell . . . Bloomin' Books owner Kate Colley puts the finishing touches to her in-store displays for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She is selling the book at full price. Photo: Tamara Dean

Harry Potter fans might be able to buy the next instalment of their hero's adventures on the cheap, but fears of an all-out price war have forced the retailers into secrecy.
The major chains are promising to discount Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from the $45 recommended retail price, but will not say by how much.
"Otherwise you get into a price war," said a spokeswoman for Collins Booksellers. "We're not going to let our competitors have something up on us. If we come out first then that's how they're going to set their price."
The stakes are high for the fifth instalment of the Potter series and it is expected the book will break the sales records set by its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Target, Kmart and Grace Bros are all keeping mum, along with major bookstore chains such as Borders. Angus & Robertson will announce its price on Friday, the day before the book goes on sale.

Dymocks' city store will keep its price secret until doors open for trading on Saturday morning. "We don't want to sit on 3000 books because our competitors sell it for $2 cheaper," said the franchise's owner, Wolfgang Buschhaus. However, that secrecy has not deterred about 1500 customers from pre-ordering the book.

A few retailers have taken the risk of being undercut. Amazon is selling the book at $26.90, David Jones at $35 and Dymocks at Camberwell, in Melbourne, at $28.95, pre-paid.");document.write("

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"It's a marketing tool to get people into my store," said Hank Kelly-Kobes, the owner of the Camberwell store. "We're not making any money on it."

One store, Bloomin' Books at Caringbah, is defying the discount trend and selling the book at the recommended retail price. Its owner, Kate Colley, is instead offering on Saturday a free children's book, breakfast and magic show to every customer. "It's the one book that no store needs to discount at all," she said. "Why discount something that everyone will buy?"